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Vendor Management PowerPoint Template

The  Vendor Management PowerPoint Template is a deck of slides representing multiple aspects of the vendor management process. Vendor management is a system by which companies organize the workflow and activities of the service providers or vendors. Vendors are the service providers or suppliers who become a part of the business on a consultancy basis. Companies frequently adopt vendors to enhance their business functions like revenue generation, lesser hiring & training investments, etc. Nowadays, IT vendors have also become a trend. So, vendor management must streamline processes relevant to vendors, e.g., selection, costs, or risk management.

Our 100% editable Vendor Management PowerPoint Template includes slides on various subjects about vendor management process. Professionals can use this vendor management template to present their management schema before stakeholders, employees, or business partners. These vendor management slides can also be a part of a formal business presentation where the agenda introduces a business opportunity for vendors.

Vendor management slide deck has the following slides:

• Agenda: This picture slide presents the business meeting agenda as key points of the vendor management presentation.
• Vendor Timeline: The two slides of the horizontal vendor timeline are designed using graphic icons arranged in a row of circular shapes. Professionals can show the steps of a vendor management process using these animated slides.
• Searching Vendors: It is a flow diagram slide comprising five arrowheads arranged line-wise. The particular steps of vendor searching, e.g., finding, requesting for quotation, short-listing, evaluation, and briefing, can be displayed using the representative icons.
• Vendor Classification: The three tiers of vendors are distributed among the three tables of this template slide based on the predicted risk imposition of the company. The high-risk vendors can be placed in the first tier, and the risk factor lessens till the third one.
• Selection Process: The vendor selection process steps are represented through the two available formats in this vendor management slide template. Users can either display the stages as circular shapes or as flow diagrams. The user can use specific PowerPoint icons for each step, i.e., analysis, identification, evaluation, briefing, and demos.
• Request for Vendor Proposal: This slide is a chart for mentioning the deliverables of a vendor quotation or proposal. Professionals can easily edit each section according to their requirements.
• VOM (Vendor Operating Model): The slide can help mention each vendor operating model’s key features, pros, and risks. In a business meeting, professionals can decide their mode of operation based on this analysis charter.
• Vertical Selection Timeline: A straightforward timeline is presented using this template slide. Presenters can mention the number of days or weeks and each milestone or event of the process.
• Days Plans: This slide is divided into three sections, each representing the key activities for the 30, 50, and 90 days of the new vendor. It can act as a planner to practically evaluate the potential benefit of each service provider.
• Evaluation Matrix and Rating Scorecard: These slides are the standards to check the working and competence of different vendors. Users can edit and define their standards on this slide.

Presenters can edit this vendor management PPT template using all versions of PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Keynote. The vendor PPT template is 100% editable, and users can modify it any way they want. So, grab this vendor management presentation template for preparing an engaging business presentation!

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156 Best Vendor-Themed Templates for PowerPoint & Google Slides

With over 6 million presentation templates available for you to choose from, crystalgraphics is the award-winning provider of the world’s largest collection of templates for powerpoint and google slides. so, take your time and look around. you’ll like what you see whether you want 1 great template or an ongoing subscription, we've got affordable purchasing options and 24/7 download access to fit your needs. thanks to our unbeatable combination of quality, selection and unique customization options, crystalgraphics is the company you can count on for your presentation enhancement needs. just ask any of our thousands of satisfied customers from virtually every leading company around the world. they love our products. we think you will, too" id="category_description">crystalgraphics creates templates designed to make even average presentations look incredible. below you’ll see thumbnail sized previews of the title slides of a few of our 156 best vendor templates for powerpoint and google slides. the text you’ll see in in those slides is just example text. the vendor-related image or video you’ll see in the background of each title slide is designed to help you set the stage for your vendor-related topics and it is included with that template. in addition to the title slides, each of our templates comes with 17 additional slide layouts that you can use to create an unlimited number of presentation slides with your own added text and images. and every template is available in both widescreen and standard formats. with over 6 million presentation templates available for you to choose from, crystalgraphics is the award-winning provider of the world’s largest collection of templates for powerpoint and google slides. so, take your time and look around. you’ll like what you see whether you want 1 great template or an ongoing subscription, we've got affordable purchasing options and 24/7 download access to fit your needs. thanks to our unbeatable combination of quality, selection and unique customization options, crystalgraphics is the company you can count on for your presentation enhancement needs. just ask any of our thousands of satisfied customers from virtually every leading company around the world. they love our products. we think you will, too.

Widescreen (16:9) Presentation Templates. Change size...

Presentation design featuring african street vendor mother holding her child between the bags of tomatoes

Slide deck featuring vietnamese vendor backdrop

Slide deck with vietnamese street vendor

Slide set with fruit stall on street market in thailand

Theme featuring pancake made by a paris street vendor background

PPT layouts with african woman street vendor background

Presentation design with african street vendor mother holding her child between the bags of cabbage and tomatoes in the shed

Slide deck enhanced with street vendor in hanoi vietnam

PPT theme consisting of sales of traditional products -mediterranan olives- in the market background

Slide set consisting of african street vendor serving a client mother holding her child bags of tomatoes hanging in the shed

Theme having african woman street vendor

Slide deck with african street vendor mother and child selling onions cabbage tomatoes

Theme featuring bunuelos in a market in chiapas mexico

PPT theme enhanced with colorful lanterns at the market street of hoi an ancient town unesco world heritage site vietnam background

Presentation having corn in a market in chiapas mexico

Theme enhanced with colorful popcorn vendor's cart background

PPT theme having african street vendor mother holding her child between the bags of peppers and tomatoes in the shed

Slide set with street vendor on a bicycle in hanoi vietnam background

Slide deck consisting of street vendor of african art multicolored bags for on sale

PPT theme consisting of elderly ice cream vendor standing behind a stall and giving a thumb up isolated on white background background

Slide deck with various of vegetables at the street market in mumbai india

PPT layouts featuring close up taking chocolate macaron from showcase in pastry store backdrop

Presentation design enhanced with happy couple family select paint color and look matching samples at household store

Theme with zezuru african woman street vendor

Theme having happy african street vendor smiling at a customer shack with vegetables and fruits

Theme having hands of young female vendor passing big purple paper box full of popcorn while selling it to one of spectators in cinema

PPT theme with african street vendor mother holding her child between the bags of cabbage and tomatoes in the shed

Theme with fresh fruit and condiments on a street vendors cart in the los angeles fashion district background

PPT layouts with african street vendor selling onions cabbage tomatoes

PPT theme with african woman holding her child street vendor with entrepreneurial spirit selling vegetables on a wooden table background

Presentation design consisting of yogyakarta indonesia - oct 10 unidentified vendor sleeps at her stall in a market in yogyakarta on october 10 2013

Presentation with beondegi boiled silkworm larvae available for purchase from street vendors in korea backdrop

Presentation featuring bangkok local traditional market at thailand

Slides with fruit stall on wheels at market background

Theme having a market in chiapas mexico

Presentation theme enhanced with lobster

Slides featuring condiments of mustard mayonnaise ketchup and hot sauce on a hot dog cart for your use

PPT layouts with couple select paint color and look matching samples at household store

PPT layouts featuring positive female seller or shop assistant portrait in hardware supermarket store

Slides enhanced with senior salesman with male customer using digital tablet in hardware store

More vendor templates for powerpoint and google slides:.

Company Info

How to develop a successful supplier onboarding process

Lucid Content

Reading time: about 7 min

Navigating new supplier relationships can be complex. Without a clear system in place to onboard and develop those partnerships, you risk losing valuable business and sacrificing profit margins.

Onboarding your suppliers before you start working together helps both parties set off on the right foot. Here’s how.  

What is supplier onboarding?

Supplier onboarding is the process of collecting prospective vendor information, assessing vendor compliance and risks, and integrating them to your platform and supply chain. Put simply, supplier onboarding is about creating streamlined processes to build stronger buyer-vendor relationships that result in improved business outcomes for both parties.

How to create a supplier onboarding process

A robust supplier onboarding process will actually consist of several separate processes to move the supplier relationship through each stage of the onboarding program.

Below are the main steps you’ll need to take to develop an onboarding process from supplier consideration to approved partner.

1. Create an evaluation and approval process

When building your onboarding program, you’ll first need to establish supplier evaluation and approval policies. In other words, determine the guiding parameters for who you will and will not work with, and figure out the steps your team and the prospective vendors must take to move through the approval process.

2. Establish requirements and expectations

In a similar vein, you’ll next have to outline your business requirements and expectations for the working relationship.

Creating clear-cut policies and vendor requirements will not only help your business managers and other stakeholders quickly vet and approve appropriate suppliers, but they will ensure both you and the supplier understand what is expected. Clear policies and expectations will increase efficiency and reduce confusion and potential friction.

3. Create a vendor portal for registration and data collection

If you don’t have one already, set up a vendor portal for prospective suppliers to register and apply to work with you.

The portal should have a form for the vendor to fill out contact information and other details that will help your team quickly vet the proposal. This improves the accuracy of your data and streamlines the info gathering process.

4. Develop a process for strategic supplier partnerships

Strategic suppliers are those vendors who have a more significant impact on the business. Typically they represent a larger proportion of spend compared to other vendors and may have other strategic value for the business.

Because of their significant impact and value to the business, it makes sense to create a separate onboarding process for these vendors. A cross-functional committee may want to weigh in and help nurture those partnerships throughout the onboarding program.

5. Establish a system and culture of communication

Finally, the most successful onboarding programs are built on a culture of communication. But good communication doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

As you develop your onboarding processes, keep communication front of mind. Your processes should make it easy for different departments and stakeholders to share and access vendor data so that all parties are acting on the best information.

This step will improve efficiency across the board, mitigate risks of costly delays or mistakes, and promote positive relationships with your suppliers.

Vendor onboarding checklist

Each business and vendor partnership is different, but it helps to have a basic checklist to walk through for each potential relationship. Use the following supplier onboarding checklist as a guideline.

The first onboarding stage consists of vendor evaluation and risk assessment:

• Review supplier’s service track record.
• Check their sustainability credential.
• Evaluate their financial/credit history.
• Assess their compliance with regulations and governance.
• Ask them to sign an ethical code of conduct.

Vendor approval and requirements

The approval process is the time to qualify your suppliers and ensure both parties are on the same page before moving forward. Discuss the following to clarify expectations and requirements before finalizing approvals:

• Expected volume of requirements
• Pricing plans
• Payment terms
• Order process and specifications
• Delivery process
• Training requirements

Strategic supplier partnerships may require a more deliberate onboarding approach to carefully nurture and develop those relationships. These types of suppliers need more than a basic checklist.

Instead, consider implementing an onboarding council that is dedicated to nurturing those leads and addressing each vendor more strategically.

Supplier info and data sharing

The easiest way to gather supplier data accurately and consistently is to create an online vendor application portal where each supplier can input their information themselves.

Depending on how in-depth your form is, you may need to follow up with the supplier to verify additional information. Be sure to gather the following data for each vendor:

• Supplier name and contact details
• Licenses and documentation
• List of primary supplier contacts and their roles

Once you have gathered all necessary data, be sure to share it with all involved stakeholders. Clear communication of accurate information is critical for a smooth supplier onboarding and activation process.

Make sure your accounts, purchasing, and warehouse managers have the supplier details and requirements and then share a finalized approval contract for the vendor to review before activation. This way, all departments and stakeholders will be on the same page and clear on the expectations and terms.

This is also the time to provide any needed training or clarify questions and concerns regarding the supply process or other business administration.

Onboarding best practices

As you develop your onboarding process, follow these best practices:

• Assign a point person to manage onboarding checklists. With so many requirements and process steps, it’s easy for things to get lost in the shuffle. To avoid mistakes or miscommunication, designate one person to be responsible for verifying each item on your checklist(s).
• Automate processes where possible. Onboarding a new supplier can be a complex (and sometimes tedious) process. Look for opportunities to automate tasks to increase efficiency and reduce human error.
• Use the onboarding process as a guideline. Each supplier is different. Be flexible and use your onboarding plan as a guideline that adapts to each unique relationship.
• Create a plan for each vendor and follow up. Within your onboarding process, you should create an individualized plan for each vendor partnership that outlines your strategy for growth and steps to achieve it. Then follow up on those plans to ensure you are getting the most value from that relationship.
• Set expectations.  Make sure that suppliers understand the expectations for lead time, pricing, payment, product quality, and other factors. In Lucidchart, you can even link data to a document and apply conditional formatting to create a dashboard showing whether or not expectations have been met.

Basic onboarding process example

Why you need a supplier onboarding process.

Good business is built on good relationships. And that doesn’t only apply to clients and customers. Just as you should nurture and support your client relationships, you should nurture your vendor and supplier relationships.

A supplier onboarding process is the foundation of a strong supplier base management program and is the first step to building those crucial business partnerships with your suppliers.

Not only will a vendor onboarding process strengthen your business relationships, but it will also help your organization to:

• Mitigate risks.
• Streamline processes and increase efficiency.
• Ensure compliance with regulations.
• Develop a positive reputation in the industry.
• Increase ROI.
• Reduce redundancies.
• Track data and workflow.
• Automate basic tasks.
• Reduce time to approve and activate new suppliers.
• Cut out middlemen and reduce human error.

Without a good onboarding process, at best you may face reduced productivity and efficiency and at worst you risk losing valuable business due to poor training, management, or partner nurturing.

Using Lucidchart to streamline your onboarding process

Building and tracking your onboarding process is a big undertaking. Keep everyone on the same page with Lucidchart.

Lucidchart is a cloud-based diagramming solution that helps businesses design and visualize their processes from start to finish. Use Lucidchart to document your onboarding and approval checklists, map out your onboarding process, and create data visualizations or org charts to support your supplier training resources.

With ready-made templates, intuitive design, and simple sharing options, you can make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

About Lucidchart

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

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Gain an Edge From Vendor Presentations

Negotiating a better deal is an ongoing process, not an isolated event. One of the steps you can use to turn the process to your advantage is to get a vendor presentation. Savvy IT managers usually require vendors to make presentations of their proposed solutions. A vendor presentation can be an excellent opportunity to gain concessions well before the formal face-to-face bargaining starts.

Here’s how: Make it very clear to the potential suppliers that to remain in competition for your business, they must formally present substantive recommendations that prove that they understand your requirements. Also, they must show that they have confidence in their ability to perform and deliver a solution that meets or exceeds your stated requirements. At this point, you are in a position of strength, because a given vendor has yet to win the deal, and vendors will tend to maximize their representations of benefits to you.

To your advantage, vendors will usually make assertions during their presentations to convince you of their capabilities and ability to deliver. Take good notes on who says what.

For example, a vendor once told me during his presentation that “satisfaction is guaranteed.” Later, during face-to-face negotiations, we pressed for a “satisfaction guarantee or our money back” warranty, citing the promise made (and by whom) during the vendor’s presentation. The vendor was in the unenviable position of having to make good on that promise or lose face and credibility by reneging.

Vendors that are still in their sales mode during presentations tend to embellish their qualifications while sometimes forgetting that negotiations are proceeding. This gives you a great opportunity to position yourself for valuable concessions.

But at this critical juncture, it’s also easy to lose your negotiating leverage. If your team gets noticeably excited about a vendor’s offering, the vendor will think it has the deal in the bag and become less inclined to offer more assurances or indulgences to win your business.

Remember that vendor representatives are trained in every aspect of account control. They’ll pick up on signs of an excited customer and change their stance accordingly by reinforcing a customer’s hot buttons while deflecting attention from any areas where their company’s offering is weak.

The key to successfully using a vendor presentation for leverage is to become a sponge and soak up information, ask probing questions, verify the answers provided in the vendor’s proposal and never show a lot of enthusiasm for a deal.

Vendor presentations may seem mundane (and in IT deals, very technical), but they create equal opportunities to either improve or erode your position. Remember that the vendor is still basically selling while you’re actually negotiating, and that creates a great opportunity to turn some sales promises into contract realities.

Avoid Attractive Lease Packaging

Translating a package of prices into “one low monthly payment” is a favorite ploy of many technology equipment vendors. Car dealers have used it for decades on eager, naive customers.

In either setting, if the salesperson can get a customer to focus on an all-inclusive low monthly price (magically within the customer’s budget), there’s a good chance he can land the deal quickly without much analysis by the customer.

For lessees, the first step is to separate the equipment price from the financing. Focusing on the all-inclusive lease quote – instead of optimizing each part by negotiating a purchase and separately negotiating financial arrangements – can be costly. Under the package price, you don’t know what the true cost of the equipment is. Second, you don’t know the true financing cost. Third, you can’t make a fact-based decision about whether purchasing or leasing gets you the better deal.

Attractive lease packaging can be very expensive. Break the deal apart, negotiate each part and line item, and then assemble the negotiated parts. You’ll find that the sum of the parts will total a lot less than the original lease package price.

Joe Auer is president of International Computer Negotiations Inc. ( www.dobetterdeals.com ), a Winter Park, Fla., consultancy that educates users on high-tech procurement. ICN sponsors CAUCUS: The Association of High Tech Acquisition Professionals. Contact him at [email protected] .

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How to Build an Effective Vendor Management Process

By Diana Ramos | May 10, 2021 (updated November 2, 2021)

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With a system for vendor management, you can reap benefits in efficiency, reduced costs, and a collaborative approach to improving products and services. Here, experts share process steps, negotiation tips, IT vendor advice, and more.

Included on this page, you’ll find vendor management process steps , negotiation tips , top features to consider when choosing vendor management software , and the specifics of the IT vendor management process .

What Is the Vendor Management Process?

The vendor management process is a series of strategic and tactical activities that companies use to manage and collaborate with vendors. This includes setting objectives, establishing vendor selection criteria, negotiating contracts, strategizing for risk reduction, and controlling for cost and delivery. 

Gerard Blokdyk, CEO of The Art of Service and author of Effective Vendor Management: A Complete Guide , says siloed purchasing departments are a remnant of the past. “It's imperative to build a disciplined vendor management process that integrates with overall corporate goals,” says Blokdyk. 

If a strategic approach to managing suppliers is new to you and your team, learn more with “ The Definitive Guide to Vendor Management .”

Who Uses the Vendor Management Process

Depending on the size of your organization, many different people will participate in the vendor management process. In general, the users are the vendor manager, the vendor management team, and the vendors themselves.

Vendor management users include the following:

• Enterprise-Level Management: The company uses key performance indicators (KPIs) to define and monitor its goals. Key vendors help achieve those goals by supplying products and services with the lowest possible risk level. The C-suite is a strategically oriented organization that will track critical vendor data provided by the vendor management or purchasing team to ensure continuous, smooth, and effective unit maintenance.
• Vendor Managers: The team leaders help create the process and programs, as well as ensure that vendor selection, oversight, execution, and delivery follow the process standards.
• Vendor Management Team: The team should have a thorough understanding and grounding in the strategy behind the vendor management process, as well as any specific tactics. From there, they can carry them through from the beginning to the end of vendor engagements.
• Vendors: A transparent vendor management process establishes relationship requirements, when vendors can expect intervention — or, potentially, rewards for positive actions, such as early deliveries, cost savings, ideas for innovation, or ways to improve existing systems. 

In essence, every department in a company should care about vendor performance, since failure in a supply chain can cause anything from minor problems (e.g., a delay in a production line due to late materials) to significant issues (e.g., those that can damage sales, goodwill, and reputation).

How to Build and Establish a Vendor Management Process

A strong vendor management process should focus on company objectives and gain C-suite buy-in. The process itself encompasses all the steps from vendor selection through the end of the relationship, with risk mitigation at top of mind. 

Vendor management enables organizations to gain increased value from their vendors throughout the relationship lifecycle. The vendor management process defines the specific practices you put into action.

The overall process drivers of vendor management include company-wide goals and KPIs, the ability to work collaboratively with key vendors, and dedication to continuous improvement.

Vendor Management Process Steps and the Improvement Lifecycle

The vendor management process involves seven steps, including incorporating corporate objectives, defining the vendor or specific project objective, setting vendor selection criteria, selecting a vendor, formalizing the contract, reviewing the project, and refining the process.

Jon M. Quigley, author and a Principle at Value Transformation, LLC , applies a framework that emphasizes continuous improvement. “It is a complicated process, and that requires customization to fit your particular organization and buying situation,” Quigley emphasizes. “You learn with every engagement and situation how to refine the process and better mitigate risk. You do that by collecting data and applying that knowledge to the next situation and the process in its entirety.” 

This method applies to the vendor management process system design overall and to individual projects that vendor managers undertake when using the process.

• Identify Corporate Objectives: Corporate KPIs should be the overriding factor in any vendor relationship. “You should work in alignment with KPIs,” says Quigley. “Then decide which combination of options meets your organization's requirements, provides the greatest value, and is the most cost effective on a lifecycle basis.” 
• Identify the Project Objective: Blokdyk of The Art of Service suggests the following questions to help you determine the project objective. “What needs to be done to achieve or close the gap between the present state and the corporate objective? How does the project move us closer to the corporate objective? What does project success look like?” Document and include the answers to these questions in a statement of work (SoW) or project charter, both of which provide the project objectives. “In the vendor management process,” says Quigley, “projects are temporary endeavors that efficiently and cost-effectively advance the organization's goals as they reduce risk. Project objectives direct specific vendor objectives, which in turn translate to individual vendor performance and predictive metrics. These then feed into the work’s execution portion as a feedback loop. These metrics help the team learn how to adapt the work methods.”
• Vendor Selection Objective: “Translate the success factors you’ve identified into a list of supplier selection criteria,” advises Quigley. “Build a database for all vendor-related information, or use vendor management software to centralize the data for collaboration.” Vendors don’t provide equal value to the company. The focus should be on vendors that are the most valued as relevant to corporate goals.

• Profiling and Due Diligence: With a focus on the highest-value vendors, perform your due diligence and create a profile for each candidate. Review financial condition, business approach, marketing, reputation, cost factors, and location. In addition, interview current and past customers.
• Risk Assessment: Due diligence will touch on risk, but to ensure your company’s position, review risk factors in every dimension before you contract a new vendor or negotiate with an existing vendor. Risk assessment should cover the following: failure or delay risk, which is the inability to deliver a product or service as contracted; brand reputation risk, such as product recalls or poor affiliations; competitive advantage risk, such as security breaches or intellectual property theft; price and cost risks, such as soft pricing or commodity price hikes; quality risks, such as product failure or poor service. For more information and free templates on risk assessment, including a vendor risk assessment template , read “ Simplified Guide to Vendor Risk Assessment .” You can also use this template to create a risk ranking of all potential vendors. Compile all your findings and vendor rankings, and make them available to your review team for assessment and discussion. An easy way to assess and evaluate vendors is by using a risk scorecard as a strategic tool. Find templates and information in “ Vendor Scorecard Criteria, Templates, and Advice .”
• Onboarding and Contracting: Vendor onboarding is the process that enables companies to collect documentation and data to approve and contract vendors, purchase services or goods, and make payments. The clarity these steps provide sets the stage for excellent relationships and ongoing success. Onboarding is also efficient to share your organization’s processes, practices, compliance standards, and expectations. To understand the full dimensions of onboarding and access templates, read the “ Complete Guide to Streamlining Vendor Onboarding .”
• Active Management: As your vendors begin their work, it’s essential to monitor performance and output. Those responsible for managing the vendor will monitor the relationship to ensure that contract terms are fulfilled. If your vendor is delivering an item of high importance to your company, you might want to monitor the relationship daily. This involves lots of communication to offer approvals, disapprovals, changes, feedback, and whatever else is necessary to deepen the relationship. The easiest way to facilitate this monitoring level is with VMS software that has reporting capabilities and two-way communication features. 
• Delivery: Whether the deliverable is a single event or delivery of products or services over time, the responsible vendor management team member at your company oversees and ensures that contract agreements are complete before sign-off and final payment.

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7. Prepare for the Next Project or Vendor: Continuous improvement is a vendor management process best practice, as previous engagements are the basis of future relationships, metrics, and standards that become best practices in your vendor management work. Use the data you collect from vendor projects to analyze what went well, what went wrong, what to change, and what to watch for in new projects. If contracts are up for renewal with existing clients, use your data and provable insights as part of the basis of contract renegotiation.

How Do You Implement a Successful Outsourcing Process?

The key to successfully implementing an outsourcing process is to ensure business continuity and cost controls. The experts you hire should understand your specific goals before any work begins, and their work should be monitored on a continuous basis.

“Everyone should work from the same playbook when you outsource,” states Quigley. “Your selected vendors are the experts in their area. Tap into that expertise to give your business a competitive advantage, particularly if they participate in the decision-making meetings and strategies are established. Be sure that you have an appropriate NDA in place before any meetings of this sort take place with the vendor.”

For more information to take procurement to the next level, see the “ Everything You Need to Know about Business Process Outsourcing .”

Benefits of the Vendor Management Process

The many benefits of the vendor management process fall into six general categories: value generation, compliance and risk reduction, improved performance, effectiveness, and innovation.

The vendor management process enables companies to do the following:

• Drive Strategic Objectives: When you manage vendor relationships as collaborative partnerships based on high-level organizational requirements, you enable competitive advantage, such as innovation, increased capacity, knowledge sharing, and complementary offerings.
• Minimize Risk: Relying on vendors to deliver goods and services saves money and time and staffing costs, but it also comes with risk. Design your vendor management process to mitigate operational, compliance, financial, and other threats to your company — it will be easier when you select and oversee vendors from that perspective.
• Set Appropriate Evaluation and Ongoing Review Criteria: All aspects of vendor expectations, such as risk mitigation, pricing, turnaround times, and quality standards, should be decided upon based on a framework informed by needs and data analysis.
• Develop Contract Negotiation Strategies: Strong negotiation with vendors result from a thoughtful analysis that supports an overall company strategy. With critical vendors, in particular, you want to set up a win-win situation that fosters collaboration.
• Forge Productive Relationships: When you work cooperatively with vendors, you create more stable and effective relationships for the longer term. Changing vendors costs time and money — it's better to “get it right” from the beginning of the relationship. This relationship-driven approach is different from the traditional purchasing office approach, which often focuses on cutting costs and stepping up delivery times and can lead to severed relationships rather than cooperation.
• Define Roles and Responsibilities: When you offer clarity about who is in charge of different aspects of vendor relationships and communication channels, you create overall efficiency.

Importance of the Vendor Management Process

The vendor management process unlocks the full — and often hidden — value of your suppliers. Efficiency increases, and the process’s collaborative orientation benefits your company beyond cost savings.

Vendor management is a business discipline that is gaining traction with organizations across a variety of industries now that the world is a single network connected in real time by global trade and technology. No matter what type of business you’re in, from banking to manufacturing to retail, vendor management processes become a bottom-line contribution source when aligned with other strategic business aims and company departments. 

Your vendor management process and programs’ size and complexity should scale to your organization’s appropriate level of maturity. As you evaluate how to right-size a vendor management program, consider expert information and tips found in “ Design Your Vendor Management Program .”

Vendor Management Process Best Practices and Tips

Vendor management process best practices and tips generally fall into several groups: setting a framework, practicing term communications, collecting data, being risk-aware, and focusing on collaboration and long-term relationships.

• Use Quantitative Data Collection Approaches: “Allow your organization flexibility to use a quantitative approach to make significant decisions,” suggests Blokdyk. “For example, complex products hold millions of computer code lines — does the vendor have automated code scanning environments to automatically test for coding practice as part of their R&D process? What processes does the vendor have to ensure that no customer data exists on disks or storage before landing in a return center? Let the data be your guide to make meaningful improvements.”
• Rely on Your Framework: “Have mechanisms and vendor management processes in place for your organization that encourage choice and vendor neutrality,” Blokdyk says. “Don’t rely on a ‘who you know’ or ‘who is cheapest’ approach.”
• Strive for Long-Term Relationships: Working with vendors long-term saves time and money, but remain vigilant. Collect data to confirm that you’ve made the right choice, and if you see a glitch, confer with your vendor and make course corrections as needed.
• Be Risk Aware: This aligns with the previous best practice: You simply cannot drop your guard. Ensure that you are alert to risks with your vendors and threats in the environment, like global shipping issues, data breaches, or other hazards.
• Compile Your Own Vendor Management Best Practices List: Use all the information and experience you gather to write your own best practices guide and include it in your onboarding manual.

What Makes for a Good Vendor Manager and Vendor Management?

A good vendor manager is clear about expectations, operates in good faith with their vendors and partners, is detail-oriented, maintains open lines of communication, and most important, always keeps company goals top of mind.

Good vendor management is a right-brain/left-brain proposition, as are most management jobs. Use data to check performance and drive improvement, but be aware of the additional creative aspect that involves dealing with and encouraging your team. Partner with your vendors to see if you can spark some new ideas, products, or services that could be a game changer for both parties.

Vendor Management Process Negotiation Tips

Vendors are people. Negotiation is an effort to reach an agreement, not necessarily a competition, to see who can beat their opponent. A preferred goal is to create a partnership and an environment in which everyone contributes to the success, and everyone wins. Below are some tips for different aspects of negotiating with vendors:

Relationship

• Establish Rapport: Speak often, understand your counterpart, and meet in person if you can.
• Speak Their Language: Learn your vendor’s jargon and take the time to understand their business, and vendors will respond with respect. The credibility and trust you create will set the terms for your partnership (and potentially result in more favorable rates).
• Seek a Win-Win: Spend time to discover the vendor's goals to help you find a better way to a mutual, beneficial agreement.

Due Diligence

• Know Actual Costs: Do your homework before you start talking numbers. Be armed with facts, and check the competition and industry standards for reasonable rates.
• Quiz Their Customers: The best data you can get from a supplier is from their customers.
• Quote Multiple Vendors: Use the rule of three to gain competitive pricing.
• Play the High/Low-Quality Game: Do your research and determine a target dollar amount that you want to pay. Once you get the price, ask the vendor(s) if there is still room for negotiation based on other factors, such as a longer contract. 
• Have Your Deposit Ready: If you want to create leverage with a vendor, be ready, willing, and able to make a 50 to 70 percent deposit.
• Be Prepared to Walk Away: Have backup suppliers ready in case of a deadlock. Doing so will keep you from a scarcity mindset and allow you to come across as confident in any negotiation. 
• Reviews are Negotiation Opportunities: Every review meeting is a mini-negotiation, since the interaction usually requires agreement on a course of action, some of which may have cost implications in the present or future. 

For more tips you can use, check out the “Guide to Vendor Management Best Practices .”

Vendor Management Process Challenges

For all the benefits the vendor management process brings to companies, there are also challenges to consider. They include ensuring compliance, upholding your reputation, building a process that provides transparency, maintaining adequate data storage, and having clarity around payment policies.

Here are some challenges to be aware of as you develop your vendor management process:

• Complex Vendor and Cyber Ecosystem: If you have hundreds (or even thousands) of vendors, it will be challenging to manage them all effectively. VMS can take out some of the pain of managing multiple contracts, deadlines, quality, compliance, and invoicing issues.
• Having the Right Internal Resources: Even with a VMS, many vendors or purchasing offices are understaffed to handle critical relationships.
• Top-Down Buy-in and Adherence: Vendor management as a strategic business practice is impossible without C-suite endorsement. 
• Multiple Risk Factors: No matter how sophisticated your vendor management practice might be, risks always exist. Risk mitigation and planning are a significant part of the vendor management job, and assessing risks need to be part of any relationship (before entering into it, during the relationship, and even after the vendor relationship ends).
• High Administrative Costs: Having the right people, processes, and tools in place come at a price. A VMS offers improved visibility and can improve efficiency and resource allocation. 
• Data Breaches: Data drives business, but there is always a possibility that the information will leak. As all business functions move online, guarding against cyberattacks is the top concern. 

The challenges of vendor management tend to grow along with your company’s size and the number of vendors you employ. Another category is IT vendor management, which has its own challenges and complications.

Important Vendor Management Process Terms

Below are some standard vendor management process terms to know:

• Vendor Management Office (VMO): This is a business unit dedicated to evaluating goods and services vendors that oversees interactions, ensures that buying activity aligns with corporate goals, and is responsible for long-term vendor relationships. As IT has become more critical to company competitiveness and functions, IT-dedicated VMOs have become more prevalent.
• Vendor Lifecycle Management (VLM): VLM is an end-to-end approach to managing vendors with transparency and structure. In many forward-thinking companies, lifecycle management has taken piecemeal, siloed purchasing by individual departments for greater efficiency and support the overall strategy.
• Vendor Relationship Management (VRM): VRM refers to the process of nurturing relationships with suppliers of services and products. The goal is to ensure smooth operations by delivering quality services and products promptly that meet or exceed their contractual obligations.
• Vendor Management System (VMS): These are software suites that help businesses take care of processes involved in the end-to-end vendor management process, from initial contact to final closure of a deal or the establishment of a business relationship. A VMS usually has apps or specific modules dedicated to processes like onboarding, time tracking, delivery monitoring, invoicing, and payments.
• Vendor Insourcing: This refers to charging company departments and personnel to deliver services or products. Companies with multiple subsidiaries might use one subsidiary to support another.
• Vendor Outsourcing: Outsourcing is the hiring of unaffiliated external organizations to complete specific tasks. Vendor outsourcing works in a variety of business settings, from retail to entertainment to manufacturing.
• Vendor on Premises (VOP): This is an exclusive, long-term general contractor relationship with a separate company that provides products or services on the hiring company’s premises. The VOP might also subcontract other vendors on an as-needed basis, with the approval of the hiring entity. Large-scale manufacturers often rely on VOPs.
• Managed Service Provider (MSP): MSPs outsource the responsibility for anticipating and maintaining a range of functions and processes to improve operations and cut expenses. MSPs are often the providers of specialized IT services.
• Employer of Record (EOR): An organization assumes legal responsibility for all aspects of human resources and acts as its employees’ employer. EORs keep the business in compliance with regulations, labor laws, and other types of legal restrictions. In international scenarios, regulations regarding benefits, taxes, and compliance can be complex. Tech companies use EORs to hire staff under work visas.

IT Vendor Management Process

The IT vendor management process is different from managing regular vendors. Increasingly, IT is of higher importance and value to companies. Simultaneously, data-related risk and the constant evolution of needs and requirements can make IT a management challenge.

Companies of all sizes might have difficulties handling IT needs. To help with the sheer volume of work, vendors (sometimes many of them) are a necessity. To manage IT vendors successfully, many companies now have IT VMOs with a staff with a comprehensive understanding of technology, contracts, and finance. 

In addition to all the contractual, technical, and financial issues, VMOs follow a vendor management process to manage risk, performance, and relationships, just like their vendor management peers. “IT vendor management strengthens service, contains costs, and reduces risk to extract the highest value from the investment,” says The Art of Service’s Blokdyk. “Value is all about technology implementation using the right policies, processes, and procedures to support your business needs.”

“Most IT vendors must work from an underlying service-level agreement (SLA),” explains Blokdyk. “These define the relationship and anticipate issues and how to deal with them. The SLA’s incident management process workflow defines that the vendor is responsible for communicating outages, incidents through tickets, emails, and SLA response times.”

Here are some IT vendor management tips from Blokdyk:

• Be Prepared for Disaster: “Take every possible precaution before you entrust data, business continuity management, or incident management to a vendor,” warns Blokdyk. “Make sure that a failure of a vendor's systems or processes won’t cause significant impacts to your company or your clients’ business processes, and doesn’t interrupt the revenue stream.”
• Pick Up the Pace of Data Analysis: Collect and analyze vendor evidence daily. Focus on risk analysis and necessary remediation. Establish a process to resolve disputes between your organization and its vendors.
• Build In Sub-vendor Management and Responsibility: Insist on knowing about your vendor’s subcontractors and how they handle critical cybersecurity and legal issues that might affect your organization.

ITIL Vendor Management Process

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a framework or best practices foundation for IT management. ITIL focuses on improving IT services, including the design, creation, delivery, support, and management of IT to align with business needs.

ITIL originated as a series of IT organization guidelines, and many technology professionals are ITIL certified. As IT has grown in every business vertical and adopted technology into their workflows, non-IT organizations leverage the framework as a method to reduce risk, reduce business disruption and failure, increase IT efficiency, and increase competitive advantage. 

VMOs at companies that deal extensively with IT vendors find the framework and best practices useful, and many non-IT companies in the United States also use ITIL. Adopters include Boeing, Procter & Gamble, Sony, Staples, Target, Walmart, Nationwide Insurance, Toyota, UnitedHealth Group, Pfizer, Visa, and PEMCO.

Benefits and Key Considerations when Using Cloud-based Software for Your Vendor Management Process

Cloud-based tools are scalable, integrate easily with operational tools you already have, and save time and money. They are often a strong option for companies looking for a software solution to support their vendor management process.

Does VMS justify the cost? That depends on the current number of current vendor relationships. If you haven't had any problems connecting your business with reliable, trustworthy vendors and keeping the management process on track, you might not need to invest. However, if your business is on the verge of scaling up, you'll need a system that enables you to manage added complexity and a significant number of vendors.

To learn more about buying vendor management software, refer to “ How to Choose Vendor Management Software. ”

Streamline Your Vendor Management Process with Real-Time Work Management in Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

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Research and reviews from strategist, futurist and analyst Daniel W. Rasmus

How Not to Give THAT Vendor Presentation

November 15, 2018 by Daniel W. Rasmus Leave a Comment

Presentation Tips: How Not to Give THAT Vendor Presentation

Trade show and conference attendees don’t like vendor presentations, and neither do conference organizers. Why? Because most vendors send a sales or marketing person up to do the company pitch, even when they committed to not doing the company pitch. The problem is, the vendor probably bought the slot, so they get to talk, and they probably didn’t receive much feedback from the conference organizers outside of guidelines. Vendors often don’t invest in specific conference presentations because they already have so many versions of the sales deck, one probably will do. How do you avoid being the vendor who delivers THAT presentation?

Vendors with good reviews invest in a presentation for a specific audience. They focus on adding value for the attendee, not adding revenue for the company…at least not directly. Trust that if the presentation helps build trust in the company, then attendees will initiate an action. Overzealous presentations that look like sales pitches and end with a sales-oriented call-to-action won’t play well with the conference crowd.

We’ve been through hundreds of sessions and hundreds of conferences. There are ways to avoid giving THAT presentation that people talk about, but not in the right way. Here are eleven pieces of advice we offer to help vendors turn their precious investments in a conference speaking slot into an engagement and enlightenment tool that builds trusts and establishes credibility. Trust and credibility set up the sale. Offer to further discuss the ideas at the booth.

11 Ways to Avoid Giving THAT Vendor Presentation

• Don’t give the company pitch. Not first. Not ever. Some vendors see their presentation as an opportunity to tell conference attendees who they are. They offer their mission, vision and values, customer statistics, and product suites. Attendees at a conference on AI or consumer electronics either already know who you are, or they don’t care. Keep the introduction to a single slide with a sentence or two to set the context. Start with an interesting springboard. Relate to the context of the conference your audience paid to attend. Then spend the time sharing intriguing, meaningful stories. Save the company pitch for the follow-up meeting.
• Don’t define things people already know. I just sat through a conference on AI where almost every vendor told me what AI was. Part of this was the conference organizers not starting with a presentation for context and then telling everyone else to not present definitions. But the vendors should have seen the pattern and triggered number 3 below. Besides, if the definitions don’t add value or create a new context (vs. the context set by the conference and other presenters) then they just take up time better spent actually telling your story.
• Don’t feel compelled to use all your slides. Just because the VP of marketing included a slide on the definitions of AI, you should not very compelled to use them just because they are in the deck you were handed. The presenter is on the ground charged with making the company look as good as possible in the given circumstances. If that means punting some slides, then punt on the slides.
• Know what you are talking about. I was at a conference recently where a vendor representative was reading from a printout. One slide with bullets and a multipage document If you can’t find someone who knows about a topic, think twice about presenting. Thought leadership can be taught and it can be scaled, but you need to invest in people learning the story, not just putting the slides out in a repository.
• Differentiate your solution. In movies, exposition is when an actor explains what is going on in the movie. Vendors giving presentations need to differentiate themselves without being expository. Don’t get up and explain how you are different, just be different. That means understanding the competitive landscape and delivering a presentation that no one else is giving, and telling stories that illustrate how and why you are different.
• Think thought leadership, not product marketing. One of the biggest mistakes made by vendors is thinking that attendees want to hear a product pitch. They don’t. They can visit a website or a vendor’s booth for a product demo. The presentation is an opportunity to demonstrate thought leadership. Share results of a survey. Talk about the technologies being explored that aren’t in the product yet. A framework for thinking about the solution space is a well-tested form of thought leadership that always helps elevate a presentation.
• Tell a customer story. Tell your product or technology story through examples. Stories about customer success and a description of how they found success is more intriguing for conference attendees, 
• Don’t sell products or services. The attendees know what company you are from and most likely, what you sell. Don’t sell products. Do sell the company by example. Answer questions like: How have you helped others achieved their goals? What ideas do you have that lead the market? This also means don’t do a demo just to show the demo. If the demo doesn’t further the story, it would get people’s attention.
• Don’t go it alone. Smaller vendors often only employ a few people who would be called industry thought leaders. Thought leaders may not be available for all conferences. Instead of sending the regional sales manager, hire an analyst or another industry pundit to provide context for your market and your product. You still display your logo and offer a call-to-action— but you also get industry credibility by association, especially if your guest speaker avoids endorsements. Conference/trade show attendees will appreciate an organization that is secure enough in its own brand identity to put a non-employee out in front for a talk.
• Teach people something. Make sure people walk about from your presentation with an idea that they didn’t have before—or one you helped clarify or expand on. Go through the presentation and think about the slides people will capture with their phones. If you don’t have any slides you think people want to take home on their phones, then figure out how to get some.
• Be visual. If your presentation is mostly words, step back and think about how to make it more visual. What is the story you want to tell? How can you tell that story without all the words on the slides? You can still say most of the words, but create a visual that sets them up and drives them home as you speak. If you can’t do this yourself, the best contract hires you can make is a visual storyteller to give your presentation a graphical narrative.

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What’s next: Microsoft Build continues the evolution and expansion of AI tools for developers

May 21, 2024 | Frank X. Shaw - Chief Communications Officer, Microsoft

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Groundbreaking advances in AI are having a profound impact on Microsoft and on the developers using our technology to improve efficiency, enhance customer experiences and make new breakthroughs.

Over the past year, we’ve built Microsoft Copilot and released more than 150 updates to it, and we’ve developed the Copilot stack, which takes everything we’ve learned so far and lets developers build their own copilots.

In addition, over the past two years, GitHub Copilot has become the most widely adopted AI developer tool, with 1.8 million paid subscribers.

And just a day ago, we introduced a new category of Copilot+ PCs, the fastest, most AI-ready PCs ever built.

We are the industry leader in AI, and that’s why, as we begin our flagship event for developers, Microsoft Build, there’s one question on everyone’s mind: What’s next?

On Monday, we introduced the world to a new class of Windows PCs , Copilot+ PCs. These devices are designed to allow developers to deliver differentiated AI experiences on the edge, and, together with the great features that we are announcing at Build , make Windows the most open platform for AI and the best place for developers.

At Build, we also are announcing further branches of this technology revolution, including:

• How Microsoft Fabric is helping developers and customers leverage data in motion, or digital information being transported within or between computer systems, to build intelligent apps.
• New frontier models that allow developers to explore multimodal capabilities supporting text, images, video and other types of data in their AI applications, evolving beyond text prompts and completions.
• Partnerships that show how AI can impact the future of myriad industries, including education.
• And how an open and flexible cloud-based platform, built on a foundation of safe and responsible AI, can help developers innovate.

Microsoft Build is always an exciting time for us. About 200,000 people have registered to join us for three days of technical learning and community connection, with 4,000 attending in person in Seattle. Attendees can choose from more than 300 sessions, demos and expert and instructor-led labs from Microsoft and our partners. For those not able to attend the live event, most content will be available on demand. In total, we are announcing about 60 new products and solutions at the event.

With that introduction to Build in mind, let’s explore some of the news and announcements.

In-the-moment decision making with Real-Time Intelligence

For the most efficient AI apps, businesses need to be able to qualify, analyze and organize data at ingestion. This has proven to be a difficult step. The new Real-Time Intelligence within Microsoft Fabric provides an end-to-end Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that empowers customers to act on high-volume, time-sensitive and highly granular data to make faster and more informed business decisions.

Real-Time Intelligence , now in preview , can be helpful for analysts with simple low/no-code experiences, and it also can benefit pro developers with code-rich user interfaces. For example, racing team Dener Motorsport has been using Microsoft Fabric to support real-time analytics, storage and reporting, enabling them to sustain optimal performance and maintain the cars in good repair, which can keep drivers safer. Dener plans to use Real-Time Intelligence as part of their winning strategy to gain insights at ingestion during races.

Building apps requires a level of flexibility, customization and efficiency to make it feasible for developers. The new Microsoft Fabric Workload Development Kit makes this possible by enabling independent software vendors (ISVs) and developers to extend applications within Fabric, creating a unified user experience.

GitHub Copilot experience leans into extensibility

GitHub is introducing the first set of  GitHub Copilot extensions , developed by Microsoft and third-party partners, in private preview. These additions allow developers and organizations to customize their GitHub Copilot experience with their preferred services like Azure, Docker, Sentry and more directly within GitHub Copilot Chat.

GitHub Copilot for Azure, one of the extensions from Microsoft, showcases how building in natural language with a broader range of capabilities can propel development velocity. Using the extension through Copilot Chat, developers can explore and manage Azure resources, while also troubleshooting issues and locating relevant logs and code.

New frontier models and multimodal capabilities in Azure AI

GPT-4o, OpenAI’s newest flagship model, is now available in Azure AI Studio and as an API. This groundbreaking multimodal model integrates text, image and audio processing to set a new standard for generative and conversational AI experiences.

We also announced that Phi-3-vision , a new multimodal model in the Phi-3 family of AI small language models (SLMs) developed by Microsoft, is now available in Azure. Phi-3 models are powerful, cost-effective and optimized for personal devices. Phi-3-vision offers the ability to input images and text and receive text responses. For example, users can ask questions about a chart or ask an open-ended question about specific images.

Developers can experiment with these state-of-the-art frontier models in the Azure AI Playground, and they can start building with and customizing with the models in Azure AI Studio.

Microsoft, Khan Academy using AI to empower educators

Microsoft and Khan Academy are announcing a multi-faceted partnership to turn the transformative potential of AI into reality.

To start, Microsoft is enabling Khan Academy to offer all K-12 U.S. educators free access to Khanmigo for Teachers, an AI-powered teaching assistant that frees up teachers’ time so they can focus on what matters most – engaging with and supporting their students. Microsoft is donating access to Azure AI-optimized infrastructure to increase the availability of Khanmigo for Teachers, which will now be powered by Azure OpenAI Service.

Khan Academy is collaborating with Microsoft to explore opportunities to improve math tutoring in an affordable, scalable and adaptable manner with a new version of Phi-3, a family of SLMs developed by Microsoft. They also plan to bring more Khan Academy content into Copilot and Teams for Education, expanding resources for learners.

New partnership with Cognition AI

Microsoft and  Cognition   will bring Cognition’s autonomous AI software agent, Devin, to customers to help them with complex tasks such as code migration and modernization projects. As part of the agreement, Devin will be powered by Azure. Cognition AI is an applied AI lab building end-to-end software agents to help developers achieve more.

Powerful new virtual machines help fuel AI adoption

Microsoft has a unique systems approach to AI infrastructure, which includes hardware and software from Microsoft and our partners, all optimized to run AI workloads at scale and fine-tuned for customer needs. We are the first cloud provider to bring AMD’s leading MI300X AI accelerator chip to power customers’ AI training and inferencing needs, with the general availability of the Azure ND MI300X v5 virtual machine series optimized for demanding AI and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads like Azure OpenAI Service.

Following the launch of Azure Cobalt 100, Microsoft’s first custom-designed compute processor, the company is announcing a preview of new Cobalt 100 Arm-based virtual machines (VMs), based on the company’s custom silicon series announced in November 2023. Cobalt 100 Arm-based VMs are the first generation of VMs to feature Microsoft’s new Cobalt processor, custom-built on an Arm architecture, and optimized for efficiency and performance when running general-purpose and cloud-native workloads. Customers can expect up to 40% improved performance compared to comparable Azure VMs.

The evolution of Copilot

Copilot has been a game-changer for many people since it was first released. Using modern AI and large language models (LLMs) like Open AI’s GPT-4, copilots across Microsoft products have assisted people with complex tasks, serving as a personal, behind-the-scenes AI assistant.

Now, we are introducing Team Copilot , the expansion of Copilot for Microsoft 365 from a behind-the-scenes, personal AI assistant to a new, valuable member of your team . You will be able to invoke Copilot where you collaborate – in Teams, Loop, Planner and more. Team Copilot can be a meeting facilitator in meetings, managing the agenda, tracking time and taking notes. It can act as a collaborator in chats by surfacing important information, tracking action items and addressing unresolved issues. It can serve as a project manager to help ensure every project runs smoothly and notify the team when their input is needed. These initial experiences, coming in preview later this year, will enable us to learn, iterate and refine as we enter a new phase of innovation where Copilot begins to take more action on behalf of individuals and teams.

Microsoft Copilot Studio is introducing new agent capabilities, empowering developers to build copilots that can proactively respond to data and events, tailored to specific tasks and functions. Copilots built with this new category of capabilities can now independently manage complex, long-running business processes by leveraging memory and knowledge for context, reason over actions and inputs, learn based on user feedback and ask for help when they encounter situations that they don’t know how to handle. Users can now put Copilot to work for them – from IT device procurement to customer concierge for sales and service.

Copilot extensions , including plugins and connectors, allow customers to enhance Microsoft Copilot by connecting it to new data sources and applications, expanding its functionality.

We’re excited about these announcements and all the other updates and features being unveiled at Build. For more information, today you can watch keynotes from Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, Executive Vice President of Experiences and Devices Rajesh Jha and Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott.

On Wednesday, you can watch keynotes from Executive Vice President of Cloud and AI Scott Guthrie and friends. Additionally, you can explore all the news and announcements in the Book of News .

RELATED LINKS:

Watch Microsoft Build keynotes and view photos and videos

Khan Academy and Microsoft announce partnership, Copilot integration

Copilot Studio empowering next wave of copilot experiences

Azure ND MI300X V5 series now generally available

Extend and customize Microsoft Copilot with Copilot extensions

Tags: AI , Copilot+ PC , Microsoft Build , Microsoft Fabric , Phi-3 , Real-Time Intelligence , Team Copilot

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Microsoft and LinkedIn release the 2024 Work Trend Index on the state of AI at work  

For our fourth annual Work Trend Index, out today, we partnered with LinkedIn for the first time on a joint report so we could provide a comprehensive view of how AI is not only reshaping work, but the labor market more broadly.

2024 release wave 1 kicks off with hundreds of AI-powered capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform  

Introducing microsoft copilot for finance: transform finance with next-generation ai in microsoft 365  , microsoft copilot for sales and copilot for service are now generally available  .

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Work smarter with Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central  

In the quickly changing world of AI, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is leading the way with innovations that have equipped more than 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses to succeed. Powered by next-generation AI, Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central introduces new ways to streamline workflows, boost productivity, and unlock creativity.

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Enabling fast, flexible, cost-effective service with Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service  

Fast, efficient service, it’s what everybody wants. And today’s field service organizations are answering the call by adopting next-generation AI technologies that can help them be more flexible and responsive to customers while also driving revenue, reducing overtime, and ensuring more predictable arrival and completion times.

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Early adopters of Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides recognize the potential for productivity gains  

The integration of Microsoft Copilot into Dynamic 365 Guides brings generative AI to this mixed reality solution. Copilot for Dynamics 365 Guides transforms frontline operations, putting AI in the flow of work, giving skilled and knowledge workers access to relevant information where and when they need it.

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2024 release wave 1: Transforming experiences with Microsoft Copilot and Dynamics 365  

In this extraordinary age of AI, we find ourselves on the brink of a profound revolution. Companies are looking for generative AI to solve longstanding problems around customer connection, loyalty, and seller productivity.

Microsoft unveils AI features for manufacturers at Hannover Messe 2024  

At Hannover Messe, the world’s leading industrial trade fair, organizations across engineering, digital technologies, energy, and more will gather to demonstrate solutions for high-performance, sustainable industries. Microsoft is honored to attend this year’s event to showcase how Microsoft Dynamics 365 helps manufacturers.

Introducing new Microsoft Copilot capabilities to optimize Dynamics 365 Field Service operations    

Delivering exceptional service is key for building customer preference and loyalty. Today, we’re introducing new capabilities for Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service that help service managers and technicians efficiently find the information they need to resolve issues right the first time while keeping customers updated at every step of the process.

• Dynamics 365 Customer Service​

AI-powered innovations enhance customer service with 2024 release wave 1  

We’re excited to announce the general availability of new and enhanced experiences in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service as part of our 2024 release wave 1 cadence. This release focuses on extending Microsoft Copilot capabilities by infusing generative AI into customer, agent, and supervisor experiences.

• Dynamics 365 Sales

New Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Copilot innovations for supply chain, sales, and service join the 2024 release wave 1  

Sellers, service agents, and supply chain professionals share a common goal: delivering quality goods and services to customers on time, every time. Today, we’re announcing new experiences for Microsoft Dynamics 365 that help professionals across business functions to collaboratively solve challenges, streamline workflows, and focus on what matters most—key factors for transformative customer experiences.

Revolutionizing marketing workflows with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights  

In the ever-evolving landscape of generative AI, a copilot isn't just a companion that makes tasks that you’re already doing at work easier, but it's quickly becoming a transformative force reshaping the very core of how things are done.

• Analyst reports

Forrester TEI study shows 315% ROI when modernizing customer service with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service  

We are pleased to share the results of a March 2024 Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact (TEI) Study commissioned by Microsoft. Forrester calculates Dynamics 365 Customer Service delivered benefits of $14.70 million over three years to a composite organization.

Explore the next wave of AI innovation at the Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event  

Join Microsoft product leaders and engineers on April 10, 2024 for an in-depth look at the latest AI features and capabilities in Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform.

Microsoft is a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Customer Service Solutions, Q1 2024   

Most organizations find it’s no longer good enough to just measure successful service engagements solely on whether a customer issue is resolved. Instead, they aim to deliver personalized, fast service experiences at every touchpoint through all engagement channels.